the long wait was worth it...

 Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1995 I spied my first Keith A Smith book
and ever since then I've been meaning to get my hands on his title
"Non-adhesive binding books without paste or glue"
but it's not as easy as you'd expect....

these days to get a Keith A Smith title you've got two main choices:

purchase a second hand version (from all the usual places)

or grab a new one online directly from Keith A Smith 

as a result I've dithered and delayed

(damnation but I hate having to buy things online --- I really do!)

finally I found a wonderful local book procurer
: sue tracks down titles that my local indie bookseller can't order in
and researches how to get what you want for the best price

and it turned out that it was worth my while to grab all the Keith A Smith titles

that I had been hankering for in one job lot

wheeeeeeeee!

four Keith A Smith titles in one hit!

For the unawares -
Smith's books are spectacular references for anyone interested in bookbinding.
Chances are if you have a query about how to bind something,
Keith has it covered in one of his many books....
things start with the basics....

but some of his diagrams are positively mind-spinning....

 (gulp)

aaaaaand in then at the post office this week
there was a wee parcel waiting for me from john neal bookseller....

John Stevens lovely book Scribe -
containing decades of his commercial and expressive calligraphic works...

its all very inspiring!